MCAT Practice Tests

[RiPSTONE]

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I've taken 3 practice tests since my 23 diagnostic on AAMC 10

AAMC 3: 33(10/10/13)

TPR #1: 27(10/7/10)

TPR #2: 27(10/6/11)

I'm not sure what to think about verbal. The AAMC 3 verbal wasn't bad at all then suddenly my verbal scores plummeted, I became worried and have been practicing out of EK 101 Verbal in any free time I get. Has anyone else had the same trends in their practice tests? What should I be doing to improve verbal?

 

[Alucard6]

I saw the typo at 17 and thought you jumped down really low! Good thing it was just a typo...

The thing about verbal is you have to stay in the groove. Make sure you do a few passages a day, and if you have time then try out different techniques. This is the one section where there is no overarching technique that works for 80% of people. Instead: people read questions first or at the end, others write down notes while some people do not write down anything and take extra time to read passage and breeze through the questions.

AAMC 3 tends to be the easiest one, so take that as you wish. Just make sure you keep doing passages daily and try out different techniques. I know there are a lot of people who suddenly find the one that works for them and instantly jump into the 10s. Just stick through and find what works best, only you will figure that out!

 

[RiPSTONE]

Thanks for mentioning the typo. Yeah I'm definitely going to practice everyday now, but I've been practicing since the beginning of summer, and I still haven't found out what works consistently for me. I feel like it may just be comprehending the passages that gets me. I started out with TPR method and have switched to the EK method. On TPR #1, I didn't even get to finish a whole passage. On TPR #2, I don't know what it was but it just felt like I missed those questions that were in between 2 answers. If you have any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Thanks!

 

[Alucard6]

I would just say keep trying something different, there are loads of different tactics. I feel like Verbal is the hardest to help people with because everyone has a unique reading and comprehension style. My friend read questions first and consistently got 11/12, but if I try that I get below 10s, it simply does not work for me.

Another suggestion would be to take it slow reading the passages. You have roughly 8.5 minutes per passage. Try and spend 5 minutes reading the passage, really slowly and trying to connect the ideas. The tip that helped me was to always ask yourself questions while reading: "Why is this point significant?", "How does this tie in with everything else?", "What opinion does the author have?", "What is the tone?". If I asked myself these questions, it made me really hone into the passage and get more focused and better prepared to answer them.